Caring for Creation: Stuff

An all Sunday school liturgy

Used on April 20, 2008

At Fairfield Presbyterian Church, Mechanicsville, Virginia

  Hymn:   For the Beauty of the Earth, for the glory of the skies,

    For the love which from our birth over and around us lies;

    Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.

    For the beauty of each hour of the day and of the night,

    Hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon, and stars of light;

    Christ, our God, to thee we raise this our sacrifice of praise.

Opening Litany                                                                                       Dixie Brachlow

            Our Creator, source of all power,

We want to align ourselves like iron filings to your magnet.

We want to be drawn to live according to your intent for creation;

    to live in a society that responds  to your call,

    to feel the surge of your life-giving energy.

Grant us wisdom in our use of the earth’s energy.

  Help us to live by the standards that respect life in all your creation:

Help us to focus our desire on you, not the comforts of modern living;

  To be satisfied by a sense of your love, not our own power or status.

ALL:  “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”

We know, O Lord, that your way is the only true way,

That everything we are and all we love is a gift from you,

And to know you as our Creator is to glimpse eternity.

Presentations

Stuff: How Composting Helps                                                 Sally Mills

Stuff: E-waste (electronics and other things)                          Dawn Williamson.

Reflection  Time 

"Reducing waste/Shopping thoughtfully"

Instructions:  Identify 3 to 5 things on these lists you personally already do or would like to do differently to save God's world.  Mark those items and reflect on them for 3 – 5 minutes, considering what you will do to enact them. 

Turn to a person beside you (not your spouse) and discuss these choices. 

If time, talk together about your experiences with composting, too.

Closing Be-Attitudes

Reducing Waste and Pollution

Landfill mountains have risen like monuments to our waste-making society.   Counties that have recycling programs are to be praised, but sadly, our national annual volume of waste is increasing faster than the amount going into recycling.  Change is up to us.  We have choices.  We are responsible for the amount of waste we create and the way we dispose of it.

ACTIONS

Chose two or three of these:

1 -   Don’t buy anything that has more than one wrapping

2 -   Buy recycled products

3 -   Avoid individually wrapped and bleached tissues

4 -   Don’t flush non-degradable items down the toilet

5 -   Use garbage liners from recycled materials

6 -   Set yourself a target for waste reduction

7 -   Use only biodegradable detergents

8 -   Measure and record the amount of garbage that you don’t reuse or recycle

9 -   Don’t buy anything that you can’t eat or recycle in its entirety (including packaging)

10-   Compost your kitchen and garden waste

11-   Buy in bulk, if this reduces packaging and you can carry the items home

12-   Use organic products in your garden (fertilizers, weed control, etc.)

13-   Buy organic – avoid products from farming using pesticides

14 -  Recycle paper and containers

Shopping Thoughtfully

One of the advantages of living in a free market economy is that we have choices about what we buy and how we buy it.  What we often lack is information about how things are produced and a full understanding of the implications of a particular product choice (materials used, expected working life of the product, practicality of repair).  By exercising informed choice we put pressure on producers to work in more environmentally conscious ways.

ACTIONS

Choose two or three of these:

15 – Buy only what you need

16 – Repair and reuse rather than replace

17 – Check through the products you bought last year.  How useful were they?

18 – Buy second-hand goods

19 – Make a list before you shop for food/household goods, to avoid buying things you don’t need

20 – Cook from primary ingredients (e.g. use fresh vegetables rather than processed food)

21 -  Buy low-energy light bulbs

22 – Use the internet to remove your name from junk mail lists  - www.catalogchoice.org

23 – When you order coffee at a restaurant, ask to use ceramic if you’re staying there.

24 – Invest in “green” mutual funds or “socially responsible” funds

25 – Buy a car with great fuel economy and save money -- and the earth!